Twin Falls County will begin using the Secure Communities program to help the federal government identify criminal aliens in local jails and state prisons, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced Tuesday.

The program uses inmate fingerprints to scan federal immigration databases to single out individuals in the country illegally and remove them from the U.S.

Bannock, Bonner and Bonneville counties also joined the program, which runs in 1,265 jurisdictions across 42 states. Ada, Canyon and Kootenai counties joined previously.

According to ICE, since the program began in October 2008, more than 72,000 criminal aliens have been deported. More than 26,000 of those were convicted of serious felonies, such as murder, rape, kidnapping and sexual abuse of children.